Books I would burn 🔥

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  • čas přidán 26. 03. 2023
  • They deserved better.
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Komentáře • 357

  • @TheClosetHistorian
    @TheClosetHistorian Před rokem +278

    Nightmare scenario: spend years writing a novel, years finally getting an agent, publishing deal, finally feel so happy you could burst and then...land a shitty cover 😫

    • @18Alpine
      @18Alpine Před rokem +7

      Pure horror.

    • @maleahlock
      @maleahlock Před rokem +3

      I am chuffed that you are here 😁😁

    • @ajjones8013
      @ajjones8013 Před rokem +3

      Bianca, that is a literal nightmare of mine. And if I am being honest, one of the reasons I have been procrastinating with my writing.
      Also, hi, you are one of my favorite CZcamsrs, and I love your work!

  • @middlehearted
    @middlehearted Před rokem +139

    Hi Leena! 😊 Here comes a little viewer request: I would love it if you did a second video on book covers you love. ❤ Those ones that, in your opinion, perfectly embody the content of the book or even enhance it. It would make for great content! 🤩
    I'll start with a young adult novel I read more than a decade ago, but whose cover still lives in my head rent-free: Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce (first edition).

  • @skatingcreative5999
    @skatingcreative5999 Před rokem +104

    I am a book cover designer and it makes me so sad when a good book gets a poor cover. In my job it is frustrating when trends beat out creativity, because we are often at the whims of editors and art directors and it has to be what is presumed to sell rather than what best suits the story. This also leads to covers replicating popular covers on the genre to try and get people to pick them up. As a reader I search for fresh fun covers when looking for books to read and that often means me missing out on brilliant ugly books. I am grateful for friends and CZcams which recommend me books so I don’t miss out on all those lovely tales, and because of my job of the book contents were good enough I will redesign the cover for the book myself once I have read it so I can enjoy it on my shelves.

  • @HeyBrosephify
    @HeyBrosephify Před rokem +469

    I think the bodily harm one is meant be the trigger of a gun/a heart. Agree that they're all quite meh.

    • @littleleafy
      @littleleafy Před rokem +8

      also, there is a man's face in the key one

    • @ronjas
      @ronjas Před rokem +7

      Yea it Def is a gun

    • @Willow-tt7ef
      @Willow-tt7ef Před rokem +2

      Yes, I agree

    • @whatewa5107
      @whatewa5107 Před rokem +1

      Thank you!! I didn't see that

    • @mollya8230
      @mollya8230 Před rokem +8

      ohhhh i was like wtf is the lovehoney logo doing there??

  • @emmad8732
    @emmad8732 Před rokem +352

    The title plus the cover for the five people you meet in heaven absolutely looks like a religious pamphlet that you would take from a nice older lady not to be rude and never read

    • @milliejenkinson5832
      @milliejenkinson5832 Před rokem +3

      Yeah, that was the vibes I was getting too

    • @febberz
      @febberz Před rokem

      I read it! It's not really anything relating to any official religious idea (as far as I'm aware), just an interesting idea and outworking of it, ie healing wounds from life on earth. Could have had more depth tbh but was a nice enough read!

    • @naughtypeppa2594
      @naughtypeppa2594 Před rokem

      God, I haven’t laughed this hard in ages

    • @no_where_land9947
      @no_where_land9947 Před rokem

      I love this book! But yah the cover is boring as hell

  • @zhisu2665
    @zhisu2665 Před rokem +43

    Everytime I see Lolita with a cover that Vladimir Nabokov would DESPISE they're always the exact opposite of what he wanted.

  • @TheAngryMarshmallow
    @TheAngryMarshmallow Před rokem +94

    MAUS has an amazing cover, design wise, but reading something in public or buying it in a store would make me nervous these days due to the very LARGE swastika it has on it and I don't wanna be mistaken for a Nazi 😅😅

    • @circleofleaves2676
      @circleofleaves2676 Před rokem +3

      You can make a temporary dust-jacket to disguise books in public. Just lay it on a long plain coloured piece of coloured paper, and cut to size. You can also buy reusable adjustable fabric book covers, in either plain or beautiful designs 🙂

    • @rollingwaves1290
      @rollingwaves1290 Před rokem +4

      I actually witnessed some people in a bookstore deciding against buying it because they thought it was a nazi book...

    • @Alexis-tx5en
      @Alexis-tx5en Před rokem +2

      @@rollingwaves1290 literally me three weeks ago, I’ll probably just buy it online lol
      EDIT: I worried other people would think I was getting a nazi book, I knew it wasn’t one just to clarify

    • @liliaweber7257
      @liliaweber7257 Před rokem +2

      You should absolutely read Maus in public, with the cover in full view, considering it's the people who actually agree with what the swastika (not the story) represents, who are banning it.

  • @ZotatoSoup
    @ZotatoSoup Před rokem +18

    As a graphic designer and illustrator I am so glad you made a video on this! There are so many books I see at the bookstore I just sigh, because I can visualize so much more creative book covers that would better fit the story!

  • @pheejohnson5680
    @pheejohnson5680 Před rokem +27

    'girly, giggles, tits and major awks moments' is the new 'live, laugh love!'

  • @pipscarlett3183
    @pipscarlett3183 Před rokem +35

    I’d love to see a video on book covers you love ! Or even you creating your own book covers for your favourite books with questionable book covers?

  • @anortemoeller9893
    @anortemoeller9893 Před rokem +14

    The one Margaret Atwood cover with the cat made me think of Cat‘s Eye which is the only book of hers I’ve read. Seems a bit weird to me to use an image of a cat eye for another book when the author has written a book with that title

  • @ChrisDailyReading
    @ChrisDailyReading Před rokem +123

    Omg I thought the Motherhood cover didn’t show actual grapes, but a bunch of pills (I assumed maybe birth control pills, although obviously not looking like pills but like grapes). I’m only now noticing those are ACTUAL grapes. This bookcover is so disappointing my mind could literally not believe it and made up something better on its own.

    • @moth.03
      @moth.03 Před rokem +7

      I had exactly the same thought! the visual of birth control pills (or even the morning after pill) would be much more relevant to a book about the choice to become a mother or not

    • @notlikewater
      @notlikewater Před rokem +4

      My first thought was also that it was grapes evoking pills! Kind of disappointed it didn't do that

  • @HollyDunnDesign
    @HollyDunnDesign Před rokem +18

    You have no idea how happy I was to click on a thumbnail about book burning to find a thoughtful, insightful and highly entertaining review of modern book design. Not that I would expect anything less than thoughtful, insightful and entertaining from you, Leena. ❤❤❤

  • @fiddlestick7086
    @fiddlestick7086 Před rokem +22

    I never thought about this before, but since you mentioned briefly how different covers of female vs male authors can be.
    Could you talk more about the gender bias and apparent infantalization of not only female authors but also their expected readership etc?
    That's really infuriating to me!
    Great video as usual :)

  • @LinnieCat
    @LinnieCat Před rokem +37

    There’s an alternative book cover for Pod (the Pegasus edition) which fits it soooo much better. A bright illustration of a kind of psychedelic and bright spiral in blue and purple with shadows of dolphins

    • @ExLibrisKari
      @ExLibrisKari Před rokem +5

      Yes that cover is gorgeous, I love it!

  • @audreyr5938
    @audreyr5938 Před rokem +22

    My friend and I had this conversation about My Brilliant Friend and the other books in that series because I was SHOCKED that he loved them because I had incorrectly judged the book by its cover and apparently they aren't Christian fiction

  • @kslaney4161
    @kslaney4161 Před rokem +33

    “Outraged” was the worst one for me personally because both the hardback and paperback look horrendous. I had absolutely no idea that was supposed to be a toilet door indicator until you said so and I have encountered them. The wolf and sheep look a like stock art from Canva and that font makes it look like a middle grade book. Yikes

    • @user-es7ui5mc1m
      @user-es7ui5mc1m Před rokem +6

      Same! I thought it was a scale at first, then figured it was some other kind of measuring instrument/meter (like "how outraged are people, this measuring device reads that they are outraged to the max") or even a dial (that allows you to "turn up the outrage")

    • @Nattifftoffe
      @Nattifftoffe Před rokem +1

      Honestly the sheep/wolf cover made me think of this one princess diana sweater and that didn't seem quite right either 🙈

  • @julialindsay1518
    @julialindsay1518 Před rokem +13

    Leena, very fun, had a great time here. Please add book binding to your reservoir of hobbies to dabble in. It’s fantastic for making well-loved paperback copies stand the test of time and it’s also just so fun. You can rebind books you already have or make yourself wee notebooks. It would also be very fun to see you figuring it out x

  • @ellieavery2373
    @ellieavery2373 Před rokem +44

    This was a great video! To add to this discussion I’d bring up Bonnie Garmus’ hatred of the US cover of her book ‘Lessons in Chemistry’. It’s a soft pink with a cartoon image of a female face. It looks like a typical romance book. She was annoyed because she felt like it wasn’t being marketed correctly. It’s meant to be a feminist book about a women who wants to pursue a scientific career and not fit into stereotypical ideas of what a mother should be. The cover was a pretty ironic choice. She rightly brought up that a man’s book would likely not be given that cover. There’s nothing wrong with reading/ writing rom-coms but that’s absolutely not what the book is.

    • @thefandomhunter
      @thefandomhunter Před rokem +6

      This is exactly what I was about to comment. I picked up this book and went into it expecting a contemporary romance. I read the synopsis. Did it register that I was picking up a historical fiction? No! Because the cover screams contemporary romance! I’m so mad for her. I didn’t love the book because the cover mislead me. If I picked the book up with the full knowledge of what I was getting into, I think I would have loved it. Instead because I didn’t get what I was expecting, I didn’t really enjoy it. She deserves better. I’ve seen the UK cover and it’s still not great, but at least it looks like it could be a historical fiction.

    • @asterismos5451
      @asterismos5451 Před rokem +3

      The UK cover is quite lovely

    • @jenniferlachs7145
      @jenniferlachs7145 Před rokem +4

      Ugh I hate that because the UK cover is amazing. I’m a chemist myself and I splurged on the beautiful hardback edition that has the periodic table printed on the side of the pages. It’s gorgeous!

    • @ellieavery2373
      @ellieavery2373 Před rokem

      @@asterismos5451 agreed!

    • @ellieavery2373
      @ellieavery2373 Před rokem +1

      @@jenniferlachs7145 yes I have that one too! :)

  • @reneehogan6489
    @reneehogan6489 Před rokem +13

    I would love to see a video on the reverse, books that disappointed due to the covers. For me the book Writers and Lovers was okay but the cover looked like such a different type of book I was let down a bit

  • @NotAllBirdsCanSing
    @NotAllBirdsCanSing Před rokem +66

    The heart on the cover of Bodily Harm looks VERY similar to the logo of a prominent online *ahem* adult toy shop 😳 if you know you know... 😂

    • @emma.greenwood
      @emma.greenwood Před rokem +1

      Hahahah truth!!!

    • @HandlePan
      @HandlePan Před rokem +4

      I was scanning through the comments looking for this!!! LH could probably sue 😭

    • @renatapaiva4805
      @renatapaiva4805 Před rokem +1

      yeah! it took me so long to see the gun trigger that was meant to be the focus, bc i insteac saw this heart that looks like the peach emoji and this logo hahahahah

  • @emma.greenwood
    @emma.greenwood Před rokem +30

    Omg yes yes yes!!! I am very much a visual book buyer and I cannot agree more with you. Pod and the Sheila Heti books look like the discount crime/romance novels you find on the bottom shelf at Tesco for £4 or in a service station. I'd feel genuinely embarrassed to be sitting reading one of the new Sheila Heti covers on public transport or wherever - they look so tacky and lacking in substance! which is a true crime against her beautiful writing 😭
    In all honesty - I bought (and loved) Motherhood solely on your recommendation - as a childfree person I would never have thought to pick up a book ostensibly about being a parent lol. I'm not crazy about the previous covers but compared to the new ones, I'd take them every time!!
    Also agree on the Margaret Atwood covers - they aren't as offensive as the others but they don't grab me.
    I'm loving the Vintage Earth series for their beautiful covers atm - I've bought a good handful without even knowing whether I'll enjoy them because I LOVE the artwork so much!

    • @emma.greenwood
      @emma.greenwood Před rokem +1

      Bodily harm ... A gun trigger with a heart in it??

    • @oest2029
      @oest2029 Před rokem +3

      Sooo true 😂 I thought the exact same thing, the Pod one in particular is absolutely terrible, looks like some Lee Child- 'Richard and Judy book club' -Tesco bestseller trash

  • @SamWest96
    @SamWest96 Před rokem +44

    As a busy mum, I never watch videos when they come out. But there are 2 people I always remember are releasing videos that day - Hannah Witton and Leena Norms. Love your stuff!

  • @leoniesliberi
    @leoniesliberi Před rokem +17

    I felt this in my soul. I read mostly in English but my mother tongue is German and romances translated into German all. look. the. same. We get some weird colour transitions, maybe some flowers but that‘s usually it. The only thing that differs betwen the books is which colour they are. And I hate that because it makes all romances look the same even though they truly aren‘t and it tells you nothing about the story 🥲

    • @FritziWagenrad
      @FritziWagenrad Před rokem +1

      Ewald Arenz has some bookcovers that are quite pretty

    • @karindudelda4578
      @karindudelda4578 Před rokem +2

      Yes!! I'm German as well but I prefer to read English language books mostly because German editions are usually so ugly

    • @fusslig7811
      @fusslig7811 Před rokem +3

      I’m also german. And while I don’t read romance, the reason I started reading books in English was literally because of how ugly most German covers are. They’re awful

  • @AlixAnn
    @AlixAnn Před rokem +80

    Loved this rant 😂 Watching from France, I feel like the French publishing industry should take a page from the UK's book and start having more exciting book covers for fiction because the only two settings we have here are austere or quirky, there is no in-between. I don't read a lot of French fiction and that is definitely one of the factors. It's hard *not* to judge a book by it's cover at least a little bit

    • @MichiruEll
      @MichiruEll Před rokem +4

      Totally agree. Any time I walk into a book store it's just rows upon rows of white spines with black text (except in the fantasy section) . It's terribe

    • @obnitor
      @obnitor Před rokem +2

      Absolutely, all french covers look the same it’s really quite sad

    • @imperatrice211
      @imperatrice211 Před rokem +7

      I end up being interested in French books from seeing their translated editions in English and going back and reading them in French x)

    • @PrincessinProcess
      @PrincessinProcess Před rokem +5

      omg YES! That concept we have in France of each publishing company having its own boring cover style always irked me to max... In a bookshop, you know how published what, but you don't know what they are about at all... Honestly, it makes me overwhelmed to then just look at rows of white, or cream, or black spines...

    • @imperatrice211
      @imperatrice211 Před rokem +3

      My mom likes them though, she says they're "classier", and probably the people working in publishing in France are around her age so that's how we end up with that 😅

  • @mushiiiiiiii
    @mushiiiiiiii Před rokem +4

    i thrift all my atwood books!! none of the covers or sizes match but they’re quite easy to find secondhand and i love the original covers

  • @themusicsnob
    @themusicsnob Před rokem +17

    Wondering if I picked up on this quickly because I am American (yikes), but I am pretty sure the Bodily Harm cover is meant to be the trigger of a gun and maybe the red part is supposed to look like a heart or a butt 😂

    • @bethanybrengan9795
      @bethanybrengan9795 Před rokem +5

      Same. I'm also an American, and I was immediately like "Yep, that's a gun." 🤦‍♀ (I kind of like the Atwood covers the longer I look at them, but I understand that the vibe is a little "off.")

    • @rachecology
      @rachecology Před rokem

      I'm glad someone pointed it out, because all I could see was a ballsack

  • @bookworm.wander
    @bookworm.wander Před rokem +1

    Love the energy in this video! Just got to the part with Margaret Atwood covers, and I agreed with the Bodily Harm cover, as couldn't figure out what it's uspposed to be, but then I saw it! It's a gun, and the heart is the trigger 🤯

  • @loz_nz
    @loz_nz Před rokem +8

    For 'Outraged' I did see a toilet door (from New Zealand), so my brain went 'this must be a book about trans toilet bans in the US'

  • @Alenajellybeans
    @Alenajellybeans Před rokem +8

    I mostly read ebooks so I don't even see the cover most of the time. But when looking for a book, yes I've definitely avoided books based on the cover

  • @EleynaAviendah
    @EleynaAviendah Před rokem +3

    The five people we meet in heaven is actually listed on a German bookstores site as a textbook and published by a textbook publisher, so maybe the UK publishers where also going for that kind of design on purpose

  • @helenm1085
    @helenm1085 Před rokem +2

    I gave one of my favourite books to a friend when I was in highschool (Cloudstreet by Tim Winton), but I could only find the TV show tie-in cover. I got out my coloured pencils and made her a dust jacket with the same cover as my copy.

  • @silliepixie
    @silliepixie Před rokem +2

    When you showed the cover for Outraged I did see a scale at first but then realized that it was meant to be a bathroom stall lock. The worst cover I experienced recently was one that had a picture of people that looked nothing like the description of the characters in the book.

  • @littleleafy
    @littleleafy Před rokem +8

    I would love to see examples of great covers. I really don't love a lot of covers lately but I can't wrap my words around why

  • @Marie-jz1qw
    @Marie-jz1qw Před rokem

    Yessss I absolutely agree! I've been thinking about this a lot, especially because I'm a french native speaker so I read books in french for most of my life. When I started reading books in english, I was shocked at the way they look, it's strange how different most of the covers are depending on the language. Books in english are always much more colourful and have lots of shapes, just for the sake of having shapes (..? which I don't undertsand either). I have to say that, because of this, I've been leaning to books in french that have more subtle or more "sober" (I don't know if it's the right word) covers.

  • @paulinachiarantano2033
    @paulinachiarantano2033 Před rokem +3

    I watched this video and feel like I need another one about GREAT covers and what makes them good. Recently I saw the translated version of Mariana Enriquez Our share of night, and the one in spanish is soo much better and it is SO simple. Here in Argentina it is ICONIC.

  • @kate4138
    @kate4138 Před rokem

    I so agree, breaks my heart! Books deserve to be beautiful! Leena, would love to see a 2023 30 books you wouldn't give up if you've made changes since?

  • @imperatrice211
    @imperatrice211 Před rokem +1

    Definitely feel your sorrow! I've been toying with learning how to make covers and make my own haha
    In the meantime, I just got used to buying the ebook when the cover is ugly so at least I don't have to see it much 😅

  • @alison_5050
    @alison_5050 Před rokem

    Outraged is on my TBR cause of one of your previous best of the year vids, and you're so right, no chance I'd have taken an interest if I'd just seen either of those covers in a bookshop.
    I passed The Five People... on to my auntie at Xmas time and now wondering if she's not read it yet because they cover is putting her off! 😅

  • @r21167
    @r21167 Před rokem +2

    Those Sheila Heti covers do look like self help books. I'd have skipped over them in the bookstore but if I saw the old covers in the store I'd pick them up!

  • @elyse49
    @elyse49 Před rokem +2

    Loved this video 😂 My other 'problem' is the font and spacing. If the book has a decent or good cover but I open it and the text is unreadable, I won't buy it, and will look for another edition. 😂

  • @sarahk6545
    @sarahk6545 Před rokem +5

    I would add a controversial one - the long way to a small angry planet. I put off reading this book for so long because of the impression I had from the cover and when I actually read it, I was blown away. It is one of my favourite books ever and I had assumed it was a completely different genre than the cosy sci-fi it turned out to be

  • @LarryS378
    @LarryS378 Před rokem +2

    tbf I bought pure colour based solely off its cover after wandering into a bookstore and loved it. I'm not sure why but it's a lot prettier in person and I'm guessing because the book is about art / life / nature / death that a slightly wilting but beautiful rose does kinda make sense

  • @awkwardatlas5623
    @awkwardatlas5623 Před rokem +2

    "Book covers when I see them, that looks flammable". So many comedic gold nuggets in this one Leena.

  • @vickyx21
    @vickyx21 Před rokem +3

    I have been meaning to buy Motherhood and now I'm so upset I didn't before they changed to that horrible cover. Hopefully I can manage to find the old cover in store!

  • @Imallwrite212
    @Imallwrite212 Před rokem +2

    Wow! That's exactly why I never read The Five People You Meet In Heaven. I couldn't believe people loved it because of what the cover suggested to me. I'll have to read it now!

  • @kaikai9652
    @kaikai9652 Před rokem

    Hi Leena! I think the idea behind the Bodily Harm cover is that it’s supposed to look like a handgun. The heart shape is the trigger. Personally, even with that, I still don’t like the way it looks, but I think that’s what they were going for. I don’t really get an idea of what the book is about from the cover

  • @elenaruh2144
    @elenaruh2144 Před rokem

    i would love a video on bookcovers you do really like and why! Totally felt you on this one but was wondering about how to do it well in your opinion

  • @bybookandbone
    @bybookandbone Před rokem +1

    Absolutely love this video. Too many books are let down by publishers who just don't seem to give a shit. I'll be looking up Girl Meets Boy, that sounds fantastic

  • @paulinevanderwardt4395

    Yes yes yes! I love cover art and do definitely judge books by covers, but dont want to miss out on gorgeous books!

  • @madi32
    @madi32 Před rokem +2

    Bit off-topic:
    A) So that's the opposite but the black background, red apple cover tricked me into reading Twilight. It reminded me of Death Note and was described as the next Harry Potter. The disappointment.
    B) Have you stopped colour-coordinating your bookshelf? I never noticed. How is it arranged now?
    C) How much do the authors get to say about the covers? Are they just allowed to nod and say thank you? If so, that's a flawed system. How is the cover not part of your work of art?
    D) I love Murakami and Atwood.

  • @natalyaedwards6258
    @natalyaedwards6258 Před rokem +9

    Is the cover for Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood supposed to be a gun? Those covers, especially the colouring, almost seem James Bond opening titles esq?
    I have to say I find the minimalism trend around books kind of boring now, it was interesting a few years ago but now it just seems kind of lazy especially when they all go for very similar colour palettes. I'd like to see some colours they don't generally use on books or just a book where the art is so genuinely beautiful it could stand on its own - Our Wives Under The Sea UK cover comes to mind which just makes the US one look lackluster in comparison.

    • @caitlynlaura3944
      @caitlynlaura3944 Před rokem +1

      It definitely looks like a gun to me with a heart where the trigger is.

  • @everythinghappenssomuch

    Five People is on my shelf right now, I'm deciding between reading that next or some others. I have another cover but I feel the same way. The book looks antiquated. I can't think of a cover I feel this way about but I'm sure I'll keep mental notes now.

  • @FlyMore100
    @FlyMore100 Před rokem

    I've found that I usually prefer UK covers to American ones, but these are rough. That being said, I went on a trip to Sweden recently and went to like 6 different bookstores to find the UK cover of one of my favourite books (Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason) because I couldn't stand the art on the American one and I'm so glad I found it.

  • @18Alpine
    @18Alpine Před rokem +2

    Hi Leena, I've just read through all the comments and I would like to add my vote to you doing a video about book covers you love.

  • @crystaledwards8854
    @crystaledwards8854 Před rokem

    I was staring at the books in WH Smith, seeing what would pique my interest. Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough stood out to me (against the top ten/best sellers), so I bought it, read it, and loved it! Stayed up all one night reading it, haha. All based on how the cover looked in the shop.

  • @99snapsnap
    @99snapsnap Před rokem

    I totally get this. I am mildly obsessed with book covers.
    I can not read a classic which has photos of a screen adaptation. Or even worse, random people in period dress.
    Also texture. The feel of a book is important.
    I took ages deciding which version of Middlemarch to buy.
    I saw outraged in an Indie bookshop and bought it from the blurb. The sheep/wolf thing didn’t worry me.

  • @thesphereicalone
    @thesphereicalone Před rokem

    This jump suite!!! Please tell me it’s still available somewhere and not a 2nd hand amazing find!

  • @vanesa_vo
    @vanesa_vo Před rokem +2

    The UK paperback cover of A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers is outrageous!!! Specially if you compare it to the US cover 😭😭😭

  • @KUBE.archvis
    @KUBE.archvis Před rokem +1

    You should collaborate with artists to redesign the book covers to try and give them justice. 😊

  • @LittleMissTotoro
    @LittleMissTotoro Před rokem +1

    Great video! It's not even about a cover being pretty or not, just finding the right audience! ❤
    I genuinely thought We Hunt the Flame was an 80s fantasy novel inspired by the middle east, when it is an actual modern book written by a Muslim woman!
    How to Lose the Time War I walked right past as I thought it was more literary fiction, when it was Scifi all along!?? ie my jam. Stunning cover though.
    Covers matter so much! And it needs to at least signal genre 😂 I have a book cloth thingy for when I hate a cover too much but own the book and want to read it.

  • @allisonpaiges
    @allisonpaiges Před rokem +6

    let's make "shenan" happen

  • @salty-walt
    @salty-walt Před rokem

    THANK YOU! YES!!
    So Much THIS!
    I'm in the States, deal with books all the time, for YEARS and I've been tortured by this! Over here it seems like 10 or 12 years ago all the big publishing houses said "New Book Covers should be all text arranged on an iPhone App. Carry On!" But then we comfort ourselves that at least we don't have "Bad British Covers." News Flash- WE DO! At first we thought it was not wanting to pay artists, now I think it's gone beyond that to not wanting to pay Graphic Designers. As if all of Random House has 2 Graphic designers pumping out a thousand covers a month & they just "let one go. . . " Self parody is the quickest route to completion and there is some art school graduate tied to a desk & clicking like a zombie 24/7 till they fall & are replaced by the next.
    These authors deserve better.

  • @jazeolo
    @jazeolo Před rokem

    On the topic of Margaret Atwood, she spoke once about the German cover for her novel The Robber Bride featuring the protagonist with, as she puts it, "gravitationally impossible front protuberances". Lots of disappointed men picking up the book thinking it is one thing and it turns out to be completely different. She also speaks about the drugstore paperbacks of the 50s which featured scantily clad women and/or leering men.
    And while I'm at it, Old Babes in the Wood is fantastic and definitely worth reading asap. Some of the best fiction I've read. Though I don't like the cover very much, what's inside is precious.

  • @LunaLynnLovegood
    @LunaLynnLovegood Před rokem

    I think I picked up Girl Meets Boy at a local shop because it was in the very cheap / pay what you can basket. I absolutely loved this book but I would agree, the cover is doing it no favours. Not sure I would have noticed had it been on the regular shelf. Unrelated but, this was also the first book I came across that didn't use quotation marks which I had to wrap my brain around :P

  • @sofiem8936
    @sofiem8936 Před rokem

    I was a bookish kid, but life got in the way and I only read 1 book every 5 yrs... your channel inspired me to start again, esp this video made me jump back into reading and in the past month Ive read 3 books already and Im currently reading Ali Smith :) and the others are reserved at my local library. Thank you for reigniting the joy of readin :)

  • @chloesutherland2087
    @chloesutherland2087 Před rokem

    My bugbear is Exhalation by Ted Chiang - the hardcover and initial paperback are lovely and do a good job of communicating the book's vibe - but there's some later paperbook edition that is by far the most common now with the anatomy of a lung filled with birds and gears. I'm truly convinced the artist just knew it was a sci-fi book and looked up exhalation in the dictionary. My heart breaks every time I see it because about a year ago I had the initial paperback in my hand and decided to wait to buy until I'd finished listening to my library copy to buy it, and I haven't been able to buy since.

  • @user-es7ui5mc1m
    @user-es7ui5mc1m Před rokem

    There's a 20th anniversary edition of The Five People You Meet in Heaven coming out soon that is a lot prettier imo! Not sure whether it's a UK or US edition since I'm not from either and the bookstore website doesn't say (it's just in the English language section, but doesn't specifiy whether individual editions are UK/US/international/etc) but even if it's a US edition I'm sure you can probably find it online?

  • @Baddylongway
    @Baddylongway Před rokem +1

    Fully agree on the Atwood covers - I think the colour palettes + font combos read as "default settings" and the illustrations themselves are shallow and unengaging. I have not read Atwood and this did not incline me.
    My personal fury here are the two first Abarat books. Clive Barker is a painted and the paintings came before the novel here and so the original hardcovers also have the paintings... or rather cropped versions of the portrait paintings for a series that is all about immersion and atmosphere. It is just absolute garbage which is just tragic when the paintings are stunning and the hardbacks include full colour prints of them. At least the paperbacks allow the images to take up the space they need.
    The His Dark Materials series also have shit covers but thankfully the Everyman's Library edition is beautiful. It is, however, an edition that would not ever be read by a child.
    I will also say that after all these years I still ADORE the Swedish Harry Potter hardback covers by Alvaro Tapia. Some of my absolute favourite fantasy illustration work of all time.

  • @katierose6424
    @katierose6424 Před rokem

    What really gets me is when my books in a series end up with different cover runs... I had the black background Mockingjay cover and og thg and catching fire for SO LONG and it annoyed me SO BADLY until I found a pristine og Mockingjay in the op shop the other week! That bad boy came home with me so quickly

  • @bubblybridget56
    @bubblybridget56 Před rokem

    I had a viceral reaction to the margaret atwood ones. I feel like that minimalist style is so hard to pull off in a pleasing way..

  • @Nopi9
    @Nopi9 Před rokem

    I love the US cover of pure colour! The uk covers seems to be an extension of the general trend of making boos pink and green , girly and aesthetic

  • @loftio
    @loftio Před rokem +1

    I typically love Noma Bar's work (Who did the Atwood covers), however he is a very 'one-trick' designer who uses negative space to tie together two or more pieces of imagery. I think when given an entire body of work to come up with cohesive covers, some of it is bound to feel more forced than the first. I would encourage people to look at some more of his work however! :)
    Oh and the Bodily Harm cover is a gun trigger as Shilly BIlly has mentioned below.

  • @Anna-jd7fd
    @Anna-jd7fd Před rokem +36

    I so do hope the answer will be "none". Greetings from Germany where we have quite a history of burning books.

    • @Marinka19916
      @Marinka19916 Před rokem +17

      @@grreeeeee I guess it depend on where you live. Where I come from, it still has negative connotations

    • @minaermelyn
      @minaermelyn Před rokem +21

      @@grreeeeee it definitely does. I understand the joke Leena made, and since I know her, I also know how she meant it (bonus her little disclaimer), however I also immediately cringed when I saw the title. Because book burning still holds exactly the same weight as a symbol, even if you don't ~actually burn the books out of this world, it is a fascist practice.

    • @nanimaonovi2528
      @nanimaonovi2528 Před rokem

      Agree book burning is never ok. Did you know that digital editions are edited post release? I work at a library and we constantly fight to keep books about sexuality and history on the shelves so society is denied the option of feel good amnesia and ignorance. Predators thrive in the dark. I will gladly spend my life turning on lights.

    • @Marinka19916
      @Marinka19916 Před rokem +6

      @@minaermelyn Exactly, I had the same reaction

    • @LuluClimbs
      @LuluClimbs Před rokem

      +++

  • @Chocolatetart88
    @Chocolatetart88 Před rokem

    I agree with you on these covers. I particularly hate Pod. It’s a mass market cover for a literary title.

  • @noemiolesiak9311
    @noemiolesiak9311 Před 10 měsíci

    I found that every time I traveled to uk i was amazed by book covers compared to polish ones I saw in warsaw

  • @18Alpine
    @18Alpine Před rokem +1

    I have a huge problem with film tie-in covers.

  • @theresehaywood2521
    @theresehaywood2521 Před rokem

    I find this interesting. I suppose that the cover might initially attract me to pick up a book but i have never made a decision to read or not read a book based on the cover. It is the blurb and possibly the first page that i decide upon. But then I am a verbal and aural person more than a visual one.

  • @no_where_land9947
    @no_where_land9947 Před 10 měsíci

    I love the five people you meet in heaven! I have the completely red cover (it might just be the book without the jacket). It was one of the books that got me into reading when I was in high school. I tend towards fantasy, but I still love it

  • @TineTineBean
    @TineTineBean Před rokem +2

    I'm so sorry about the Sheila Heti books, those covers are U-G-L-Y and I would never pick them up on my own.

  • @chattylily
    @chattylily Před rokem

    Just wanted to say your dress is so pretty you look amazing! Love your videos, have a nice day!

  • @chloesutherland2087
    @chloesutherland2087 Před rokem

    Saw a toilet door after you'd had it up in the shot for a wee bit, not convinced I would have seen it as that if I'd just been browsing past it in a bookshop

  • @farrahaliceblack7453
    @farrahaliceblack7453 Před rokem +1

    I love all of Taylor Jenkins-Reid's books and hate all the covers with equal passion

  • @girlwiththeglass
    @girlwiththeglass Před rokem

    They sound awesome, and if I heard your review I’d want to read the books but get them from the library 😬

  • @averekriz
    @averekriz Před rokem +1

    in germany we were taught, books are never to be burned, i find it a bit of an odd phrasing giving the history of the practice.

  • @annanicole469
    @annanicole469 Před rokem +1

    My first thought with the Bodily Harm cover was a heart-shaped gun trigger... no?

  • @abookorten9319
    @abookorten9319 Před rokem

    Love this conversation. It makes me wonder about the books I'm missing out on because the covers aren't communicating what to expect.
    The cover for Starling Days by Rowan Hisao Buchanan has always struck me as... I don't know. It's not awful, but the woman's face hidden in flowers just doesn't communicate any of the intensity of what that book covers in terms of depression, desire, family, ageing, reckoning with personal past... Just, odd.
    I'm very glad to hear how much you loved Pod, I've got it out of the library because it's on the women's longlist but otherwise would absolutely have passed over it as an animal-narrator thriller, based on cover and the tagline.

  • @nitzans
    @nitzans Před rokem

    The white and orange "station Eleven" cover with the deer makes me so sad 😔

  • @lenagwen8264
    @lenagwen8264 Před rokem

    Totally sharing your rage! I feel like here in Germany the book covers are especially bad. I love Carry on by Rainbow Rowell. The original trilogy is just perfect! And it has such a good cover. But the German version... I would nearly be ashamed to admit that I'm a fan of a book with this cover. And it looks like some children's book about magic. It is about magic. But it's also about love and being a teenager. And the title just makes it worse. But it's so good!

  • @mxrumphius
    @mxrumphius Před rokem

    Oof yeeeeeessss. My favorite series of all time is the Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede, a funny, feminist middle grade fantasy series. The first, hardback editions has art that *perfectly* encapsulates the vibe of the series. Then pretty much every iteration after that goes downhill, but the most recent iterations are unforgivable.

  • @TsKindOfView
    @TsKindOfView Před rokem

    Currently watching, did you list the year of publication for the editions? Would help me to evaluate the Graphic Design mishap personally. Haven’t read the video description yet.

  • @hausofstructure8705
    @hausofstructure8705 Před rokem

    Thank you for this lol. Sometimes I go to the book store just to judge covers😂😂

  • @nakymatonlapsiN
    @nakymatonlapsiN Před rokem

    i wouldn't pick up any of these books based on their covers. the 'pure colour' cover made me sad because the (older?) green blob cover version is actually super nice. i would love a good/intriguing cover video as a companion to this one!

  • @lorna_alice
    @lorna_alice Před rokem

    Don't judge a book by its cover, but please sometimes do? 🤷‍♀️
    I'm a sucker for a nice cover. One of my favourites is one that I got in Edinburgh about pebbles (sounds odd but I like beach treasure and find comfort in rocks). The cover is by the illustrator and muted water colours that can also be found throughout it too. It made me so happy discovering it. 😊

  • @BobHogvall
    @BobHogvall Před rokem

    Please do a collab or something with new designs!! It'd be so fun!

  • @sprinkledsunshine
    @sprinkledsunshine Před rokem

    Oh an idea about the 5 People You Meet in Heaven search. If you can't find a better cover you could see if someone can design you a cover? I designed a cover for Noughts & Crosses in college and printed out the cover on paper and folded it around like a dust jacket, it holds surprisingly well
    And on the topic, I didn't read Noughts & Crosses until college because the cover made it look incredibly tedius and boring (it's clever and beautiful, but it's standing in the way of the story)

  • @missrobinhoodie
    @missrobinhoodie Před rokem

    Please make a follow up video about the most beautiful covers you own, I mean books you own with the most beautiful covers!!
    I personally get sad and angry everytime I see a book with a movie cover 😑

  • @art.i.schock.e9991
    @art.i.schock.e9991 Před rokem

    Thank you for talking about these books - some went immediately to my tbr, and they really wouldn't have based on the cover (apart from the girl meets boy one - that bird is cute 😂😂😂)

  • @pyjamabottoms670
    @pyjamabottoms670 Před rokem

    Outraged cover definitely looks like scales. I own that book and I realised it wasn't scales after a while but I then thought it was a safe 😅😂

  • @nimrodgrrrl
    @nimrodgrrrl Před rokem

    Leena this video was so fun and funny. I loved the ranty vibes. God bless.